The federal privacy commissioner has launched a ``preliminary inquiry” following several complaints that Prime Minister Stephen Harper compiled a mailing list of Jewish Canadians.

The federal privacy commissioner has launched a ``preliminary inquiry” following several complaints that Prime Minister Stephen Harper compiled a mailing list of Jewish Canadians.

The investigation follows reports that a number of households received unsolicited Rosh Hashanah greetings from Harper last month.

Some of the recipients complained to news media that they had no idea how they came to be on a mailing list based on their religious affiliation.

“We’ve begun preliminary inquiries as a result of the complaints,” Colin McKay, a spokesman for Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, said today.

“We’re interested in where the mailing came from, and what information was used to compile the lists. This mailing may not fall under the jurisdiction of the Privacy Act if it did not use public resources.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Liberal MP Marlene Jennings is among those requesting an investigation, saying she believes the mailing violates the privacy rights of those who received the greeting.

“It appears the privacy of these individuals has been violated but that is what I want the privacy commissioner to determine, so that if the prime minister is compiling lists of Canadians by their religious or ethnic affiliation, it doesn’t happen again,” said Jennings.

The federal Conservative party boasts one of the most sophisticated electronic databases in Canadian politics, with more than two million names.

The so-called CIMS program, for Constituent Information Management System, was launched in 2004 and stores data gathered through phone calls, door-to-door canvassing and other means.

Conservative party officials have said in the past that they do not buy corporate information on individuals because that’s illegal under the Privacy Act.

During the 2006 election campaign, several constituents of Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant lodged privacy complaints when they received birthday greetings after filing passport applications through her office.

Mining personal information from confidential government documents would constitute a breach of the Privacy Act, but Stoddart’s office said party mailing lists are not part of the privacy commissioner’s mandate.

“Political party databases and mailing lists do not fall under our jurisdiction,” said McKay.

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